Lynton and Barnstaple - Operations and Development

Just a friendly piece of advice.
The TWAO process for the CHR line was considerably lengthened and increased in cost by information taken from the railway's discussion forum and used by objectors.
Think about this for the L&B and learn from history.
Please be careful what you say. I am not saying censor everything but doing the laundry in public rarely brings positive benefits.

 

Sorry Tom,

I don’t think I follow, so please don’t take this as criticism.

The Railway was closed but remote working at home was thing for the reason of survival.

My point is that lockdown enabled the board the opportunity to focus on extending and tying up loose ends without the need to divert focus on actually running trains and all the associated ‘front of house’ activities and expenses.

I accept there was a phase of uncertainty and irrational panic conceptualised by panicking buying, driving to distant castles to check eye sight as well as the apparent need for loo roll as if it’s a main food group.

During the first lockdown society never stopped functioning. Arguably some people lost jobs etc and relied on government handouts. No shame in that, these were exceptional times. However, the current board are mainly retired and wealthy people without the worries working folk have - I realise you don’t know them - so would not have been faced with the same burdens as the working population.

They were in the ideal position to work on the project without distraction, I can’t see how Covid rendered the board of trustees incapable of running the railway. The members have placed their faith in the current board of trustees for many successive years without complaint, during more stable times when focusing on extending the railway was in addition to daily running as well as preparation for galas and fundraising activities and so on, all of which was managed fine evidenced by previous posts.

With the lockdown preventing or eliminating the need all the usual ad hoc activities there was more time to give to activities surrounding extending. Notwithstanding those with nothing to do could take on other functions with good management, delegation and supervision.

I think it would be a discredit to the board to think Covid stopped any substantial forward movement save for actually catching covid Notwithstanding, business is just about always done via electronic means with or without Covid, ‘remote’ just means we do it from home rather than the office.


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Thanks @ilvaporista:

I don’t believe nothing is being discussed or mentioned is not in the public domain already. Certainly nothing objectors haven’t used already.

Point noted all the same

Cheers.


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Yes, office staffing for example has been hit badly leading to delays, That said applications shouldn’t be affected providing the applicant submitted everything on time and fulfilled his obligations (one rule for one and all that jazz)

As such I’m confident we have nothing to worry about, the boys at the top know what their doing as you know.


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I'm sure that some you will be aware of this already, but for what its worth, at least the Lords do have some use:
https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2021/1...bill-will-not-apply-to-steam-locomotives.html

 

In theory yes but not the case where I live for a several applications I am aware of.

 

I would agree. In addition Objectors have been known to participate in forums to try to provoke a reaction.

 

I cannot help but think that what we need are a few benign philanthropists, as RVR has, to help nudge things along... It is easy for we railway romantics to see the enormous potential of a re-awakened L&BR but most of us have limited resources. Money would be the best lubricant to grease the wheels and ease an extension of this lovely railway.

 

I have been wondering about this for some time so it puts my mind at rest (at least on this subject!). Nevertheless, good quality steaming coal is required, especially so to reduce dirty smoke, apart from better performance. From where will this be sourced, I wonder?

My mind wanders, especially late at night, and I can't help thinking about a hydrogen-powered Manning Wardle, what that might look like and how it might perform on the 1-in-50 gradients...

 

A scaled up version of this in the long term?
https://static1.squarespace.com/sta...1509712137097/CSR_Torrefied_Biomass_Paper.pdf

 

Yeo vale road in Barnstaple,between Pilton yard and where the line crosses St Georges road all have gardens that have now encroached onto the old trackbed,a block of them could have been sold back to Sanders and sons when they took back ownership of the yard and offices,as for the rest it is unknown whether the land was purchased or not

 

with all due respect,these were not alleged voting irregularities,they are fact,i was talking to a CIC director and he said'a gamble was taken and it didnt pay off'.internal policies these may be but the L&BR managment wont accept criticism and with thanks to the data protection act they most certainly cant let others have members contacts details ,at the AGM the chairman gave a brief explanation of why the voting had been cancelled (too many invalid ballot papers) and that it would be rescheduled,had they not been taken to task the real reasons would have been brushed under the carpet as if nothing was wrong,remote members wont hear of this,from my point of view they wont hear about carriages being left out in all weather,hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of members donations in the exmoor weather,there are some 3000 members ,for many the only updates they get are through the newsletter which is going to be only positive,you dont get to hear of the frustrations of the volunteers,its taken years for instance to get Chelfham to where it is now and theres still frustrations there because management dont want to listen,yes we all have to take precautions with what we say,we all want to see the railway expand and grow but without putting some of the issues onto sites like this we will all suffer in silence

 

Just for clarification please:-

• is it the case that volunteers have written Letters to the Editor expressing their frustration, but they have never been published in the Magazine or Newsletter?
• is it the case that the management do not listen, or that they listen but do not reply, or that their reply is not to everyone's liking?

 

But what do you hope to achieve by it? Airing all this dirty laundry in an independent forum doesn't do anything, doesn't bring about change in L&B management, doesn't change priorities or policy, it just denigrates the entire project, puts off potential volunteers/supporters and provides fodder for objectors. I'm really curious as to what you're trying to achieve

 

It's the case of volunteers emailing management or even explaining things and then getting no reply, being ignored or being told they will move things along but nothing happens, look at Chelfham 2018, the project waiting to move on, emails sent and no response, in frustration an action taken and Chelfham shut down for 3 months, a good volunteer, life member and long time supporter being forced to to walk away and rescind his life membership, taking the fall, maybe the action was a step too far by him but it could have been avoided if PM had the decency to respond

O

 

There are members on here, it's one of the very few ways to reach out to them, highlighting some of the issues we see that would not be known otherwise, its not dirty laundry, it's issues that are there, it's the hope that members who can very rarely visit the railway will email or get in touch and question these points for themselves,

 

Certainly it was the experience a few years ago with the problems in the WSR Association that the exposure of the issues on NatPres helped to spread the word amongst those who previously relied for their information almost entirely on the WSRA's Journal, the Editor of which at the time IIRC was also on the Board.... I am NOT suggesting that the same sort of problem affects the L&BRT and its Magazine, but I'm sure you can see the potential for a parallel situation to develop.

 

The 1938 sale catalogue and the BR Property Board (sic) plans recording sales of the former railway owned land show that F. J. Sanders purchased the trackbed from Pilton Road to Bridge 5 along with the works, offices and warehouse in 1939.

 

[*]is it the case that the management do not listen, or that they listen but do not reply, or that their reply is not to everyone's liking?
[/LIST][/QUOTE]


@ RailWest I hope this helps:

Going back to my post on the 01/11 attempted engagement with the management / board tends to go unanswered in my experience.

But this is good management because without the strong body of decision makers at the top, the L&B could never have advanced at the speed it has over the last decade. It is therefore clearly imperative that engagement with the freebie workforce is kept to minimum that’s how things are done on a successful railway.

However, when decisions are made by the freebie workforce in the absence of direction, once toys a thrown from the pram (its my train set, p*** off) credit is then sucked up whilst those responsible for making progress attracting good press (trackside msg page 41) get banned from site.

I referrer of course to the numerous posts congratulating the progress at chelfham, just know it has nothing to do with the board, rather a pesky volunteer of many years who is now banned from site in recognition for his outstanding dedication and loyalty to the L&B

I guess it’s what you call an early retirement package handed out my the outstanding trustees who are clearly thankful evidenced by the 5 page spread.


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Never let the facts get in the way of a good story! There are other, less incredulous, explanations.

Just remember that Chelfham is owned by the L&B Trust, and that the Trust (through the Trustees) has a legal responsibility for their assets and the safety of those who visit.